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AMKE: The List 8-10-11

1. AMKE News Rundown Wisconsin is in the local and national spotlight for its historic recall elections. It’s currently underway with holding nine recall elections, all falling in the summer months. Yesterday’s elections resulted in Democrats winning two state Senate seats, but that wasn’t enough to give them control of the chamber. Republicans kept majority in the Senate by holding onto four out of six state Senate seats. Details are available at www.jsonline.com.

With voters heading to the polls, it now means showing a photo ID card. The Department of Transportation decided to add four more offices and extend its hour to better accommodate voters needing free ID cards. Starting in 2012, each county will have a DMV office and it will be open at least 20 hours per week. Right now, less than half of Wisconsin counties are meeting that requirement.

There’s great news coming from UW-Madison. It was awarded $5.6 million for five nuclear reactor technology projects. Two of those projects will focus on fuel cycle research and development, and the other three will look at advanced reactor designs and technologies. I’m no rocket scientist, so to get the technology scoop visit www.jsonline.com.

U.S. stocks finally rose after the worst day of stocks since 2008. Yesterday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average went from its worst decline in 08, to its tenth highest point gain in history. It soared more than 429 points. Details at www.nytimes.com.

New figures show Milwaukee will actually gain more than it will lose next year from the state’s controversial budget-repair bill. It looks like the city will save at least $25 million a year from health care benefit changes. This is also resulting in a net gain of at least $11 million for the 2012 budget. More info is at: http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics

Yesterday was a groundbreaking day for UW-Milwaukee. It marked the start of construction for its public-private research complex, Innovation park. It will consist of 71 acres, and it sits next to Southeastern Wisconsin’s largest academic health cluster. The park will increase the university’s research capacity and will form new partnerships together for future projects and businesses. Want to see the layout?...just visit www.uwm.edu.

This year the 29th Annual Milwaukee LGBT Film/Video Festival has stretched across two weekends, running October 16-26. This morning festival director and LGBT FILM Grand Puba, Carl Bogner stopped in to speak with the AMKE crew about the...

Gov. Scott Walker signs three new bills today strengthening domestic violence laws, some pertaining to guns. One bill would require domestic violence suspects to report and surrender their weapons within 48 hours of a reported incident....

Political leaders and security forces in Ukraine are still struggling to confront Russian-backed separatists, as pro-Russian militants seized another government building this weekend.
What do 137,000 Wisconsinites have in common? The IRS...